Zard was filled with grief and indignation: “What’s the meaning of a bunch of grown men bullying a group of women? If you’ve got the guts, come at me! I’ll take you on!”
This statement completely baffled the Chen Family soldiers.
The soldiers looked at each other, unsure if Zard’s “come at me” meant the same thing as they understood it.
Qing Chen patiently comforted Chen Jiazhang: “He’s not a Knight.”
Chen Jiazhang felt slightly relieved: “A messenger?”
Qing Chen thought for a moment: “No, he’s a friend.”
Actually, he couldn’t give Zard a good definition. Zard defined himself as Qing Chen’s messenger.
But Qing Chen’s definition of Zard was more of a friend.
Chen Jiazhang was stunned for a while: “If he’s a messenger, it’s fine.”
This veteran Knight almost thought he’d been out of the game for too long and couldn’t understand the Knight organization anymore.Not to mention Chen Jiazhang, the refugees nearby looked at Zard with a mixture of surprise and admiration, their expressions extremely complex.
Qing Chen sighed. He couldn’t let Zard fight his way out of the Chen Family troops at this time. Above them, the Class A Airship was still floating using anti-gravity devices, its main firepower cannons constantly pointed at the ground and active.
Also, he estimated that there were at least a dozen Chen Family artists in this Chen Family troop, ranging from C-Class to A-Class.
Qing Chen also wanted to fight his way out, but the key was that he couldn’t.
They couldn’t be the first to act.
Only when they reached Forbidden Zone 008, could they use the cover of the landscape to hinder the Class A Airship and then use the rules and blind spots to eliminate these soldiers one by one.
At that time, with the dense tree canopy of the Forbidden Zone as cover, the Chen Family’s threat from above would be rendered useless.
At this time, four squad leaders came to check.
Seeing that his soldiers wanted to have some fun, he just glanced at them without speaking.
After all, a few refugee women who would die sooner or later didn’t matter to them.
A few Chen Family soldiers laughed at Zard: “Does anyone want to play the hero? Come, let me show you the price of showing off. Tie him up and beat him all night!”
Just as Zard was about to use his ability to bury these soldiers alive, Qing Chen put his hand on his shoulder: “I’ll handle it.”
Zard silently looked at Qing Chen’s back, feeling a surge of emotion.
Boss was indeed the one who stepped forward at critical moments.
But as he was thinking this, Qing Chen stumbled through the crowd and ran to the four squad leaders: “Officers, these refugees are already suffering enough. Please let these women go. If you really want to have some fun, take my brother instead.”
Zard: “??? ”
Chen Jiazhang: “??? ”
Hearing Qing Chen say this, Zard suddenly realized something was wrong. He seemed to have misunderstood something earlier.
It turned out that the soldiers were taking the women away for… well, he thought they were going to beat them up.
Chen Jiazhang was also dumbfounded. Was this a Knight? This Knight, who had just comforted him, was even more absurd than the dim-witted Zard!
The Chen Family soldiers were also dumbfounded. These two refugees were making trouble in front of the squad leaders; they probably wouldn’t survive the night.
However, at this moment, Squad Leader Liu Pengsheng of the first squad said to the soldiers: “Take the one who’s playing hero to the tent!”
Chen Family soldiers: “??? ”
At this time, Liu Pengsheng said to the soldiers again: “If you cause a refugee riot, watch out for me shooting you on the spot. Get back to your posts!”
After speaking, the four squad leaders dragged Zard towards the tent. Zard looked helplessly at Qing Chen, only to find Qing Chen nodding at him.
Zard was puzzled. What did that nod mean?
Inside the tent, Liu Pengsheng suddenly said: “Get a good night’s sleep.”
Zard was shocked: “Officer, you shouldn’t be saying this!”
Liu Pengsheng said angrily: “I’m Qing Chen. I’ve controlled these squad leaders. It’s not comfortable sleeping outside; you’ll sleep here, and I’ll guard outside.”
During the day, Qing Chen had been paying attention to the four squad leaders, trying to hear their names, observe their speaking habits and tone, and remember them one by one to distinguish them.
The squad leaders of the first, second, and third squads liked to swear, and the squad leader of the fourth squad liked to use rhetorical questions. Qing Chen had observed them well enough.
With these four squad leaders, Qing Chen could control a 120-man troop to ensure that the refugees had a better life.
At least until they reached Forbidden Zone 008.
They definitely couldn’t escape now. Once he tried to let the refugees escape, the fleet above would immediately notice.
The next morning.
Zard slowly walked out of the tent, stretching at the door. The four squad leaders walked out behind him, fastening their belts.
The refugees looked at the two with surprise and suspicion, looking at Zard with admiration and sympathy.
Zard returned to the crowd of refugees, and someone whispered: “Are you… alright?”
Zard didn’t understand: “I’m fine. I slept very comfortably. Sleeping in a tent is much better than sleeping on the mud. Don’t worry, you won’t suffer anymore on the road. The squad leader promised he’ll restrain his soldiers.”
The refugees looked up to him with respect.
The atmosphere of the entire refugee camp suddenly became strange.
The four squad leaders instructed all the Chen Family soldiers: “The superior officer thinks our progress is too slow. You organize the able-bodied men among the refugees to make stretchers and carry the elderly forward. Also, the superior officer requires that the number of people cannot be reduced. If I see you abusing these refugees, watch out for your skin!”
This 120-man troop had become Qing Chen’s troop, and the other Chen Family troops were still unaware of this.
During breakfast, Chen Jiazhang said solemnly to Qing Chen: “Kid, the old guys gave you the Marionette, didn’t they?”
Qing Chen smiled and nodded.
Chen Jiazhang immediately breathed a sigh of relief: “That’s good, that’s good. I was worried that you guys were really that perverted. By the way, Li Shutong only has you as a disciple, right?”
Hearing this, Qing Chen knew that this senior uncle was truly depressed and drinking, not some kind of disguise.
The other party didn’t even dare to return to Forbidden Zone 002 anymore.
Qing Chen suddenly asked: “Senior uncle, I’m curious. Even if you can’t break through the Reverse Breathing Technique, you’re still an A-Class expert. You shouldn’t be so depressed. We both passed the Trial of Heart; our minds should be the most resilient in the world. I don’t understand why you made this choice. How did Chen Chuanzhi disrupt your Trials of Life and Death challenge? How did he know where you were conducting the challenge?”
Chen Jiazhang was silent for a moment: “Didn’t your master tell you?”
“No.”
Chen Jiazhang said: “Chen Chuanzhi and I were the best of friends since we were young at the Chen Family school, and we were also the closest cousins. During that Trials of Life and Death, I asked him to be my Guardian, but I didn’t expect him to make a sudden move. If I hadn’t reversed the Breathing Technique, I would have died there. But he was well-prepared, with twelve paintings, and I couldn’t do anything to him. I could only escape temporarily.”
Chen Jiazhang: “He also warned me not to return to the Chen Family and not to try to seize power, otherwise, he would kill my parents. I’ve been friends with him for 27 years, but I never knew that people could be so insidious.”
Chen Jiazhang continued: “Your master Li Shutong was originally in love with Chen Chuanzhi’s sister, but because of what happened to me, their relationship ended.”
Qing Chen was stunned. No wonder his master went straight to attack after becoming a Demi-God.
Of course, that would have to wait until he became a Demi-God before he could capture them.
“Senior uncle, are you planning to keep drinking like this?” Qing Chen asked.
Chen Jiazhang said dreamily: “Qing Chen, in the stories we used to read, when gods made mistakes, they would be demoted to the mortal world. You know how bitter the mortal world is. We’re just making the best of a bad situation, why bother seeking further suffering?”
Qing Chen fell silent.
Just as Qing Chen and Chen Jiazhang were talking, a messenger ran over and gave orders to the four squad leaders: “Move out, continue forward, and we are expected to arrive at the outer edge of Forbidden Zone 008 by 8 pm tomorrow. There may be a possible encounter with Fire Pit members inside the Forbidden Zone; your troops are ordered to drive the refugees to the front to explore the rules. Any Fire Pit members encountered are to be killed without mercy.”
Qing Chen’s heart sank. The Chen Family army was indeed targeting Fire Pit!
His expression turned serious. If Fire Pit, without knowing anything, encountered this level of regular army, even if they knew the rules of the Forbidden Zone, they would suffer heavy losses.
On the west side of Forbidden Zone 008, a team of Off-road Vehicles was traveling from west to east, heading towards Forbidden Zone 008.
Next to the Off-road Vehicle team, there was also a cavalry escort. These horses were not ordinary creatures; they were even taller than the tall Fire Pit people.
If ordinary horses were placed next to them, they would look like ponies.
More than ten young men in leather robes rode on horseback. As the horses swayed, the bone ornaments around their necks clattered together.
At the forefront was the girl Qin Yiyi, leading the way on a black warhorse, guarding the Off-road Vehicle team.
The girl’s loose hair had more than ten small braids tied with red and blue agate hair ornaments. She sat on her horse, and at some point, she was lost in thought.
On the side of the Off-road Vehicle, the Elder pressed down the car window, glanced at the girl, and shouted: “My little ancestor, snap out of it! We’re almost at Forbidden Zone 008. We’ll rest for half a day outside the Forbidden Zone, and then we’ll go in. When the time comes, we’ll just pick the fruits and fill the car, and we’ll go back.”
Qin Yiyi glanced at the Elder and said: “You guys can go back after picking the fruits; I want to go out and play for a while.”
“You’re the Fire Pit’s God Woman; where are you going to play?” The Elder was anxious: “It’s just spring, and we still have four Forbidden Zone plants to harvest. I’m getting old, you need to familiarize yourself with these tasks quickly. In the future, when you become the Elder, you’ll also have to lead the people to harvest in the Forbidden Zone.”
“I don’t want to be the Elder.”
“The God appointed you; who else is going to be?” The Elder said angrily: “Don’t keep thinking about that boy. If he really cares about you, he would have come to Fire Pit to find you. In the end, you fought for him in the north, were tricked by Li Shutong, tricked by Qing Family Shadow, and you didn’t even see him. Isn’t this bullying you? Little ancestor, listen to me, we don’t do what’s not worthwhile. If he doesn’t come to Fire Pit, you don’t look for him either. Got it?”
Qin Yiyi pouted: “I can’t hear you!”
With that, she clamped her legs against the horse’s belly and urged the warhorse to rush forward, more than a hundred meters away from the Elder’s vehicle, unwilling to listen to the Elder’s nagging.
A God Son in his twenties saw this and immediately rode his horse to catch up: “Yiyi, what’s so good about men outside? They’re all so delicate, not as unrestrained and energetic as our Fire Pit men. The Federation men scream at the sight of blood, and a punch can make them cry. What’s so good about them?”
Qin Yiyi glanced at him: “That’s your prejudice; he’s different from what you think.”
Qin Yiyi recalled that when Qing Chen’s feet were covered in blisters, he still didn’t even frown when he set up tents, made beds, and chopped wood for Li Shutong.
Qing Chen was clearly different.
And most importantly, Qing Chen was handsome!
The God Son stubbornly said: “Federation men are all the same; they’re not responsible. If he comes to Fire Pit to find you, every warrior in Fire Pit who has undergone the Rite of Cutting will challenge him. I guess he won’t dare to come.”
Qin Yiyi didn’t speak. Now, the whole world knows that she likes Qing Chen, but she doesn’t know if Qing Chen likes her.
But that doesn’t matter; she likes him.
Qin Yiyi looked at the God Son: “You guys can beat me first, then if you dare to bully him, I’ll help him beat you up.”
God Son scratched his head: “If he hides behind you, we’ll look down on him even more.”
“Who cares what you think,” Qin Yiyi rolled her eyes: “When will you change your habit of looking down on Federation men? There are also very powerful people in the Federation, such as his master, Li Shutong. The Elder was captured by Li Shutong back then.”
God Son was puzzled: “Huh? That’s not what the Elder said. The Elder said they were friends, and he just went to be a guide for his friend. The Elder also said that Li Shutong wasn’t powerful; he could beat him with one hand.”
Qin Yiyi looked back at the Elder’s vehicle. The Elder slowly rolled up the car window, pretending not to hear anything.
But the problem was that the Elder had eaten nine Dragon Fish a long time ago.
Qin Yiyi probably knew why Fire Pit people looked down on Qing Chen.
After all, the Elder could beat Qing Chen’s master with one hand!
At this time, the Fire Pit people had already seen the outline of Forbidden Zone 008 from afar, and everyone cheered, thinking about the delicious snake meat and rabbit meat in Forbidden Zone 008.
Countdown 78:00:00.
The Chen Family troops finally arrived at the edge of Forbidden Zone 008.
In terms of size, Forbidden Zone 008 was as large as Forbidden Zone 003. It stretched for thousands of miles from north to south across an entire mountain range, becoming a natural barrier for the Chen Family to enter the southwest border.
Moreover, there were many rules. There were seven known rules, and the unknown ones were countless.
Even Fire Pit wasn’t omnipotent here; they relied on the pollen of the Fengjun flower to survive.
It is said that the reason why this place is so dangerous is that during the last Ming Dynasty, there was a city here that was invaded by a group of “experimental subjects,” forcing the Qing Family to drop a nuclear bomb, which eventually razed the city to the ground.
These experimental subjects were even related to the God Ren Xiaosu.
Ren Xiaosu was originally a Knight. Under the leadership of his father, Ren He, he completed the Eight Trials of Life and Death and became an A-Class Metahuman.
However, he suffered from cancer and was sent to Huo Zhong’s research lab to find a way to fight against cancer.
When all methods were exhausted, it was still impossible to stop the Cancer cells from spreading throughout his body.
Finally, the Huo Zhong laboratory took a risk and ventured to let Ren Xiaosu coexist with Cancer cells.
Cancer cells are a strange thing. They grow uncontrollably and have no limit to their lifespan.
Ordinary cells degenerate naturally after dividing dozens of times, leading to human aging, but Cancer cells do not. Theoretically, they can even live forever.
However, their multiple cell nuclei and abnormal cell nuclei are extremely harmful to the human body.
At that time, the person in charge of the Huo Zhong research lab proposed a concept: if they could control the Cancer cells’ orderly growth, then when Ren Xiaosu coexisted with Cancer cells, it would be the time when Ren Xiaosu lived forever.
Later, Huo Zhong succeeded. Ren Xiaosu, with the powerful body of a Knight, survived the cancerous stage and directly transformed into a God, but his body was still very fragile at that time and could not withstand the process of mental will merging with the world.
Therefore, Ren Xiaosu’s father went to grab the Forbidden Artifact ACE004 Black True Sight Eye for his son to suppress Ren Xiaosu’s mental will from growing too fast.
In this way, Ren Xiaosu could completely unlock his mental will when his body became stronger.
This combination of factors created the only God in the Inner World.
The body of a Knight, the Black True Sight Eye, cancer, and Huo Zhong’s treatment technology were all indispensable.
At that time, the Demi-God Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu were patients in the same laboratory and were also the sons of the person in charge of the Huo Zhong Company.
The person in charge, in order to save his son, asked Ren Xiaosu to transplant bone marrow for Yan Liuyuan, which created the strongest brothers in the Inner World, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan. This is also the reason why Yan Liuyuan’s mental will hasn’t completely vanished after merging with the world by 85%.
Yan Liuyuan is the closest person to God in this world, but he is also on the verge of his body collapsing. He can only barely suppress his mental will with the Black True Sight Eye, and only when he has suppressed it for a period of time can he reappear.
And in that laboratory, there were countless experimental subjects. They were the result of failed treatments.
Although they also coexisted with Cancer cells, they became neither human nor ghost, craving protein, like zombies, sweeping through the city and slaughtering civilians.
In the end, the Qing Family dropped a nuclear bomb, destroying the city and hundreds of thousands of experimental subjects, creating the Forbidden Zone 008 of today.
A city full of people, who knows how many Metahumans are hidden inside? Therefore, no one knows how many rules are in Forbidden Zone 008.
Only Fire Pit can enter and exit here safely.
At this time, Qing Chen’s 120 soldiers all wore tactical recorders that could record videos at any time.
They, as the vanguard, would enter Forbidden Zone 008 with the refugees first.
Because they couldn’t discuss the rules in the Forbidden Zone, once someone violated the rules, the video on their chests would transmit the process of violating the rules to the rear in real-time for summary and analysis, in order to analyze what the rules were.
They couldn’t mention the rules; Forbidden Zone didn’t like people discussing it.
At the urging of the messenger, more than thirteen hundred refugees were driven into Forbidden Zone 008 by 120 Chen Family soldiers.
Qing Chen and Chen Jiazhang looked at each other and nodded.
Just twenty minutes after they entered the Forbidden Zone, a refugee who wanted to escape quickly suddenly fell to the ground, convulsing.
In the real-time video, a soldier wanted to verify if he was dead, and the squad leader of the second squad suddenly said: “I’ll verify it myself.”
Speaking, he squatted down, placing his fingers on the dead man’s carotid artery: “Confirmed dead.”
In the rear, Chen Yehu stood outside the Forbidden Zone, silently watching the monitoring screen in the command vehicle, and he said solemnly: “Could it be that you can’t run too fast in Forbidden Zone 008? If you exceed a speed of 25 kilometers per hour and a 100-meter sprint of 14 seconds, will you violate the rules?”
More than ten combat staff officers were constantly analyzing the video, but the refugees in the video didn’t do anything else.
Chen Yehu asked: “The refugee’s name, age, any unique characteristics, and any medical history?”
There was a Forbidden Zone that specifically didn’t allow people with the surname Wang to enter, one that didn’t allow people over 45 to enter, and one that didn’t allow C-Class or above Metahumans to enter.
The most absurd was Forbidden Zone 124, where people who had suffered from prostatitis could not enter.
Therefore, analyzing rules is a comprehensive, complex, and specific matter. The Conglomerate has a set of analytical procedures, and except for Qing Chen and a few temporary additions, all refugees have a complete set of files.
The larger the base of explorers, the easier it is to fully analyze the rules.
A combat staff officer replied: “Officer, facial recognition is complete. This refugee is named Li Yuejin. The three characters in his name overlap with other refugees. Exclude the name factor; his wife’s name is also not taboo. Exclude the wife factor; he is 37 years old, and there are people in the refugees who were born on the same day and month as him. Exclude the birth date factor; he has a medical history, but 129 refugees in the team have had the same medical history as him. Officer, we have excluded all factors. But it is currently impossible to determine whether he has been cuckolded; this factor needs to be investigated further by questioning his wife.”
There was once a very strange Forbidden Zone where those whose partners had cheated would violate the rules when entering. There were precedents for this kind of judgment.
“Don’t consider this factor for now. There are more than thirteen hundred refugees, and many of them have cheated partners. So, is it really because they ran too fast?” Chen Yehu calmly nodded: “Record it as a guideline for future actions.”